Three 'skint' men have been locked up for a bungling bid to rob a garage ATM cash machine 300 miles away in Exmouth.
The Liverpool gang made a catalogue of mistakes and never got a penny.
The judge jailing them branded their attempt as 'inept' as he locked them up for a total of eight years.
Exeter Crown Court heard David McCaig, Carl Taylor and Joseph Stickland drove 300 miles from their homes in Liverpool to Devon in two cars including a high powered Audi.
They arrived at Courtlands Cross petrol station on the A376 at 2am and started to smash the ATM which had £18,000 in its cash pod.
The trio used tools they had brought with them to prepare to drag the ATM pod away from the forecourt using chains attached to the car.
They made so much noise they left the scene for a while – but a resident heard the racket and called the police as he realised what was happening, said prosecutor Richard Crabb.
The gang came back and thought the coast was clear and they tried to steal the pod – just as police arrived.
They scattered but two were quickly caught and McCaig was later traced through his DNA which was found on some tape he has used to fix a stolen number plate on his car – and it had dropped off on the forecourt.
McCaig claimed he had been nowhere near Devon even though the second set of plates had been stolen from a car just 100 metres from the garage.
The prosecutor said not only did the plate fell off during the raid but the gang left the chain at the scene along with a balaclava.
Then one of them crashed one of the getaway cars as they fled and receipts for the balaclavas were found inside it.
Paul Grumbar, defending dad of one Taylor, 27, and father of three Stickland, 30, said they all knew each other from their Liverpool estate and were 'skint' and went along with the plan to get 'some quick and easy money'. Both admitted conspiracy to steal in November 2012.
He said:"Neither are professional criminals. It was a ridiculous journey."
Charles Walker, for dad of three McCaig, 27, who was convicted after a trial of conspiracy to steal, said:"He is a bit daft."
Judge Erik Salomonsen said the trio did not know how much was in the cash pod saying:"It could have been a great deal more or less than £18,000. It was inept."
He jailed McCaig for four years and the other two for two years.
